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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

A fine catch, but one April in 1939 ….

The Honolulu Star Bulletin
1April 1939

Scientist Scores Again
Fish-Also Story-Record

The biggest fish ever to be caught in Hawaiian waters, or any other waters outside the fairy tale books, was exhibited to cheering thousands in downtown Honolulu today.

After hours of vicious battling, the monster was brought to gaff near the Diamond Head buoy by Dr. Thorkel Gellison, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., famous Norwegian scientist and authority on prevaricana. Four Young Bros. tugs were required to tow the leviathan into port.

“It was nothing,” smiled Dr. Gellison. “I have not only caught bigger fish but have told bigger fish stories.”

The doctor explains that this titanic fish is very common in the Norwegian fjords, particularly Model A, and that very often they are captured and tamed and ridden with saddle and bridle.

Scientific name for the great fish is Gellisoni Fabricata, it having been discovered

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Red Emperor is actually a Sea Perch and not a true Emperor. They are a stunning fish to catch both in colour and on the table. It would certainly be neck and neck between coral trout and Red Emperor as the most prized table fare fish in Australia. They have a strong jaws and a large powerful tail. They are salmon pink to pale red with dark red stripes. The stripes are more pronounced in juveniles. There is three main stripes, one running from the eye back to the dorsal fin, one through the pectoral fin area and one slanting back towards the tail. Each scale has a white dot on it which adds to its beauty. Commonly caught between 1-8 kgs but can grow as large as 20 kgs.

Red Emperor is found down the entire Queensland coast from close reefs out to the Great

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

During spawning, Albacore females produce between 800,000 and 2.6 million eggs which hatch in about one or two days. After the eggs hatch, the fish begin to grow quickly and they remain close to the place where they were hatched for the first year of their lives. They begin to migrate after their first year. Albacore tuna have a lifespan of 11 to 12 years, but they reach reproductive maturity at around five to six years.

Queensland State Archives Image ID 941

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Barrier Miner
Sat 28 Jan 1933

Tourists to Great Barrier Reef
Dr Macgillivray Relates His Experiences

[…] Mr Busuttin, a Maltese, has two married sons who are very hardy specimens, especially Mick, the elder. Mick was engaged at one time in capturing crocodiles for the various zoological gardens in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. It is nothing for him to defend himself single handed against a shark and kill it with a knife.

He knows all passages and the islands intimately and ran with consumate ease barefooted over the sharp rocks and stone and coral reef. He is stall, strong, and wiry and climbs a coconut tree with his hands and feet and can come down head first. Some little time ago an airman who was engaged in an aerial survey on the Barrier Reef tried to emulate him. He climbed the tree all right, but came down head first

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Central Queensland Herald
Thursday 9 March 1939

Death of Mr J. W. Davidson
48 Years in Service

Exactly a year after his retirement from the position of Commisioner for Railways, which he held for 19 years, Mr James Walker Davidson died at his home tonight after a long spell of ill health. He had been an inmate of a private hospital for several weeks. He returned home a few days ago, but suffered a fatal relapse.

Mr Davidson was born in Glasgow and came to Australia as a youth in 1890. He entered the railway service as a junior clerk and made rapid progress through the service under Commisioners Thallon and Evans, and on the retirement of Commissioner Evans was appointed to the head of the service. He was regarded as one of the most able railway administrators in Australia.

Speaking from Mackay tongiht, the Premier (Mr Smith) expressed

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

One of the most fearsome Chelonians around is the alligator snapping turtle, Macroclemys temminckii, which is the biggest freshwater turtle in North America. It can grow to 2.5 feet long, can weigh as much as 200 pounds, and has powerful jaws, a sharply-hooked beak, nasty bearlike claws and a muscular tail. The alligator snapping turtle does eat some aquatic plants, but it’s mostly a carnivore that dines on a variety of smaller creatures — fish, frogs, snakes, worms, clams, crayfish and even other turtles.

The alligator snapping turtle catches prey by way of a fiendishly clever evolutionary adaptation: an appendage to its tongue that, when wriggled, looks an awful lot like a worm, according to the Saint Louis Zoo. A fish who gets fooled by the turtle’s tongue will swim right into range of the hungry predator’s jaws.

Queensland State Archives Image ID 928

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